African cichlids

[tiggeryoda]

I am always looking for ways to improve my set up and open to any tips/suggestions on diet, filter media lighting etc...

I have a 400 litre tank (5 ft x 2 x 2 approx), heavily stocked with mostly malawi and one or two other african cichlids.

Decor comprises tuffa rock, sand substrate and some old bog wood

Filtration comprises two eheim externals @ 1000 lph and a UV steriliser. One biological media one part bio, part carbon/chemical filtration

Lighting is two tubes that came as standard with the tank and I find them a little harsh, so considering alternatives.......

diet, mostly african cichlid pellets, some vegetable flake and various frozen mysis/brineshrimp etc about once or twice a week

 

[TaffyFish]

Sounds like it's going well, do you have any specific questions? Maybe a pic would help? I'd like to see how it looks.

What's the part carbon/chemical filter media? I wouldn't have carbon in the filter on a long term basis, eventually it dumps out on you.

Got any synos in there with the cichlids?

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Nice, thats about 105gals

I'd also like to see this tank. And there is really no use for carbon until you remove meds.

 

[mariners]

as you've seen in my other thread, i keep some mbunas and i was told that i should avoid feeding them meat, such as brineshrimp and bloodworms. do you find this is the case?

*looks forward to pictures*

 

[tiggeryoda]

Thanks for the feedback guys

Will see what I can do about pictures.......

Noted on the carbon, will be removing it....

I have two synos in the tank

I avoid bloodworm, having been advised its a common cause of malawi bloat. Saying that I do feed the occasional brineshrimp, mysis mosquito larvae etc. When I first had the fish, I fed a lot of beef heart which is very high protein to help them fill out, no problems but maybe I was just lucky.

Any thoughts on plants? Temped to try java fern on the bog wood since they would probably trash anything else, but does java fern contribute to water quality? If not, I would be more concerned about rotting plant matter behind the built up rocks reducing water quality?

 

[wayne]

Bloodworms should be ok as the majotity of these fish aren't obligatory herbivores. I'd give the beefheart a miss though.
Sounds like you're on the right track really though. is there anything you're not really happy with?

 

[TaffyFish]

I'm assuming your old bog wood is no longer leaching tannins and no longer softening the water? In which case it would be good to try java fern, also maybe java moss, anubias nana and bolbitus heudelotiii. In each case you can tie the plant to the bogwood or rockwork rather than root it into the substrate. With anubias you need to trim back the roots and allow the new roots to dig into the wood, this can take a few weeks or months as they are slow growing. You may also find the fish eat the new leaves and the old leaves attract hair algae. Worth a shot though to improve the look of the tank.

 

[tiggeryoda]

Guess looking to get some plants if possible, thanks to taffy for the info, will try java fern since I find it more attractive than the moss.......

Wayne, I guess the looking to get some plant in if possible (will try java fern I think) and lighting are the areas I would like to improve...

The Rio 400 comes with two tubes, one bright white light, the other more yellow and even experimenting with reflectors and turning the tubes around with tuffa rock and sand it looks a little bleached with the white light to front, kind of dirty yellow the other way.....

I have been told jewul tanks only take jewul lighting tubes? ...

Considering an RO unit to precondition water, but havign never used one I am dubious about these since the fish I have are tank bred as far as I know and probably more used to conditioned "tap water" than recreated lake malawi water.......

 

[Somonas]

recreated lake malawi water really isn't that hard to make. just get some epsom salt and some baking soda. there are trace elements you can add as well but i've had a bunch of cichlids from the lake for over 2 years and they dont stop breeding

 

[wayne]

You can get most bulbs to go in juwels now I think. I had problems getting non juwel bulbs in an older juwel I had, but it just meant some minor mucking around with the screw in end cap covers. I would just get a hagen tube or something and see how it works. In the newer hood it was tube out , tube in.
Do you wnt more lighting or a different spectrum. Beware - oftimes these fish will 'bleach' their colour if they're overlit.

 

[TaffyFish]

There's a vast range of tubes these days and you're not restricted to Juwel tubes at all. I have a Trigon with Hagen daylights at the front and Interpet moonlight tubes at the back. I don't replace the endcaps with each tube replacement either, the seals still seem good enough.